Tag Archives: Episcopal

Give Me Jesus (Sermon) May 25, 2014

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Sermon – May 25, 2014
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, CSW
St. John’s Episcopal Church, Corbin, KY
Sixth Sunday of Easter

Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. I Peter 3:15-16

Please be seated.

In the morning when I rise
In the morning when I rise
In the morning when I rise
Give me Jesus

Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
You can have all this world
Give me Jesus

I was reminded of this Spiritual, found in LEVAS II, hymn 91 in the past couple of weeks,  No one’s sure who wrote it or when, but it came from the tragedy and toil of people who were brutalized by being enslaved.  They found hope, despite this brutality, in Jesus.

I have been around people in tough circumstances and heard them cling to Jesus.  Just over two weeks ago, I was at the University of Kentucky with Ann and Travis.  They were anxiously awaiting the birth of Bella.  They had to go all the way to Lexington, because doctors had seen something that led them to believe Bella might need some surgery on her head soon after her birth.  I was there when doctors came in to talk to Ann and Travis.  The doctors couldn’t say how serious the problem was.  I heard the doctor say there was a chance little Bella would not live.

Yet Ann and Travis were realistic and positive.  I’m sure they were a little nervous, but they had discussed things.  They had made plans.  They had prayed and they knew a whole community was praying for them and for Bella.

And there was such joy in the room, too, because just the night before, Travis had been baptized.  He was so happy!  Travis truly embodied what we heard in I Peter, chapter 3, verses 21 and 22 this morning:

And baptism…now saves you– not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

Travis’ baptism was an accounting for the hope that was in him.

On Wednesday, I went to the viewing for Dalton Christopher Brewer, also known as Buddy.  His death at the age of 31 was so tragic for his family.  The past seven years had been difficult for Buddy, after his beating and subsequent traumatic brain injury.  Family and friends were devastated to learn of his death.  At the viewing, I heard time and time again from family member after family member, through tears and cries of woe, “I don’t know how I’ll make it.  The only way is that we have Jesus.”  Someone said, “I don’t know how people make it through something like this without Jesus.”  In the midst of terrific grief, there was hope of making it through.

We are Jesus people.  We are people of hope.  And we must always be ready to give an accounting of this hope.  The hope shines through.

I met a mother earlier this week, whose 27-year-old daughter has a rare disease that only about 150 people have.  This young woman has been in and out of the hospital since she was two years old.  Yet, she has graduated from college.  She got married.  People say she is always smiling and how can she be so happy, given what she deals with physically every day.  She says, “I have faith. That’s what gets me through.”

The hope shines through and when people ask her for an accounting, she is ready and able to tell them about the hope within her.

Now Episcopalians are not known for our public evangelism.  We tend to be quiet about our faith and our religious beliefs.  In fact, many people are quiet about their faith.  Religious beliefs are considered private, individual choices by many.  Yet as a friend once said, if your faith has given you hope…has given you life, why wouldn’t you share that with someone?  If your faith and this community of St. John’s have given you hope…have provided a way of life for you, find a way to share that with others.  Find a way to give an accounting that is gentle and reverent.

You see, when we are baptized, we are saved.  When we are baptized, we are called to do God’s work.  A friend posted this anonymous quote on Facebook earlier this week:   Carry the water of your baptism with you through the vast desert of this world and dispense it liberally to every traveler you meet. 

We have this gift of Jesus.  We have this gift of love.  We have this gift of hope.  It begins with our baptism…with God claiming us for God’s own.  We water the world.  We water souls.  We do this as individuals and as the community of St. John’s.

St. Teresa of Avila, who lived in the 16th century, wrote this prayer:

Christ has no body but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

We are called to be Christ’s body to the world.  In doing so…in clinging to Jesus, we are joyful in the midst of hard times.  We can get through our rough times.  We bring joy and abundant life to the world.

Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you and until the day you die, know the gift of Jesus.

Amen

 

 

Desserts and assistance needed for lunch Monday, April 14, 10:30am – 1:00pm #stjohnscorbin

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Friends,

Sacred Heart would like our assistance with the Holy Week lunch and service on Monday.  They expect 130 people to eat lunch.  They’ve asked us to provide the desserts.  Also, if some of us can go help set up and serve, we should be there at 10:30am.  Lunch begins at 11:30am and goes until 12:30pm.  A short service follows the lunch.  Please let me know if you can make a dessert and/or if you can help serve.  You can bring your desserts to church on Sunday or drop them off at Sacred Heart Church after 9am on Monday.

Thanks
Rebecca

In Dialogue with Jesus (sermon) March 30, 2014

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Sermon – March 30, 2014
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, CSW
St. John’s Episcopal Church, Corbin, KY
Fourth Sunday in Lent

I have told you already, and you would not listen. John 9:27

Please be seated.

The physical act of seeing is a tricky thing.  When I was on the School Board in Harrisburg, a man came to give us a presentation about quality improvement.  Part of the presentation was a movie.  I can’t remember the name of the movie, but I have never forgotten one of the parts of that movie.  It showed a person dealing cards very quickly.  The action happened twice and we were told to look very carefully.  It was just a hand dealing cards.  Then they slowed down the action and it turned out all of the colors of each suit were reversed, so the hearts and diamonds were black and the spades and clubs were red!  It was astounding to know that I refused to see the reality, because it conflicted with all of my experience and belief. 

We see that in our Gospel story today, don’t we?  Jesus challenges the worldview of an entire community by healing a man who was blind from birth.  The people in the town have a difficult time accepting this miracle.  It does not fit in with what they know.  It conflicts with their experience and belief.  Instead of rejoicing with the man, they debate and work hard to deny what has occurred. 

Yesterday, a group of us gathered in the parish hall for training on Ministry Support Teams.  These are teams set up in Network parishes to support the Priest-in-Charge.  People and priests from Emanuel, Winchester and St. Mary’s, Middlesboro were also at the training.  One piece of the training was about the difference between debate and dialogue.   

Now, just in the words, there is a fundamental difference.  The word “debate” comes from a French word meaning to fight or to beat down.  Dialogue goes back to Latin and Greek meaning to “speak through” or “through words.” 

The goal of debate is to win against your opponent.  In a debate, when you listen, it is only to counter what the other person says, to find the weakness in the argument, especially so you can discount and devalue it.  In debate, you make assumptions about another person’s experience and motivations.  At the very beginning of the Gospel, the disciples, speaking in the worldview of their time, ask Jesus, “who sinned, this man or his parents….?”  The assumption was that sin was the cause of the man’s blindness.  Because Jesus healed on the Sabbath, some discounted the healing, saying it was not from God.

In debate you ask questions to trip up your opponent or confuse them on the issue.  This happened to Jesus a lot.  In debate, you interrupt the other speaker or change the subject.  You are not concerned about the person, but only about your next point.  You deny the other person’s experience, saying it is distorted or invalid.  Look at our story today where people continually ask the man who had been blind how he was healed.  He had to keep telling them the story.  His parents were called in to authenticate his identity.  When the man insists on what occurred…on his experience, they drive him out of the town. 

Why do we insist on debate, instead of dialogue?  Kathryn Schulz studied why we as humans insist that our way of looking at things is right…why we have such trouble admitting when we are wrong.  She wrote a book, Being Wrong.  She also has a TED talk online.  One of the things she says is that early in life, we internalize that “getting something wrong means there’s something wrong with us. So we just insist that we’re right, because it makes us feel smart and responsible and virtuous and safe.”  (http://www.ted.com/talks/kathryn_schulz_on_being_wrong/transcript)  She says we live in this “tiny, terrified space of rightness.”  Our love of debate is about being in this “tiny, terrified space of rightness.” 

Where we need to be, and truly where we have tremendous capacity to be…where Jesus calls us to be…is in dialogue.  The goal of dialogue is an increased understanding of ourselves and of others.  When we listen, we’re trying to understand the other person.  We listen for strengths to affirm the other person and to learn.  We speak from our own experience and understanding, rather than from the assumptions we’ve made about others.  We ask questions to increase understanding.  We allow others to complete their communications.  We concentrate on the other person’s words and feelings.  We accept others’ experiences as real and valid for them.  We respect and are open to how the other person expresses their real feelings and how we express our feelings as a way of understanding and catharsis.

In our Gospel today, the man who had been blind is engaging in dialogue, while those around him are engaging in debate.  The man’s experience is so powerful, he is thrust out of the “tiny, terrified space of rightness,” probably the space he had been living in, to a new place.  That’s the power of dialogue.  Dialogue can transform us.  Dialogue makes us grow.  Dialogue changes everyone who is involved in the discussion.  It opens us up. 

In dialogue we honor our own experiences as valid; we trust others to respect our differences; we trust ourselves to be able to hear different points of view; we open ourselves up to the pain of others, as well as the pain we feel ourselves; we see Christ in others. 

When we are in dialogue, we can grow.  We can agree to disagree – to know that we can look at the same facts or situation and come to different conclusions or slightly different places, yet still be in community together…to still be in communion with each other.

That’s what Jesus asks.  We come with our assumptions about life.  With the way things are supposed to be and Jesus says, “consider this.”  Look at the world in a new way.  Don’t debate me, but be in dialogue with me…in connection with me, he pleads.  The man who was blind remains in dialogue with Jesus.  He is open.  Jesus asks him whether he believes in the Son of Man and the man who had been blind, asks a question to learn more.  Receiving an answer, he professes his belief. 

In Ephesians, the writer provides us with the fruits of dialogue, “but now in the Lord you are light.”  We are light to the world.  When we can leave debate behind and engage in dialogue, we are transformed and live as children of the light.

Amen

 

 

 

 

 

Being Seen by Jesus (Sermon) March 23, 2016

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Sermon – March 23, 2014
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, CSW
St. John’s Episcopal Church, Corbin, KY
Third Sunday in Lent

 “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done!” John 4:29

Please be seated.

I have talked before about the brief part of my social work career when I was a therapist.  I provided individual therapy for people who had traumatic brain injuries or TBIs.  For the most part, the people had been in rehab and were living independently; however, they often required support or some additional assistance in living with their injury. 

One man, Doug, was in our program because of anger issues, a known result of TBIs.  This man had tried to attack another man at work one day and the diagnosis was inability to control his anger due to his brain injury.  However, over a period of time, I learned that this man was extremely sensitive to people.  He could see people deeply.  He had developed a very low tolerance for people who lied to him.  He felt unsafe when someone was not authentic.  He was afraid he would be harmed.  What appeared to be unjustified aggression to others, was actually his way of protecting himself. 

At the time I was doing this work in North Carolina, I was going through a difficult time in my life.  I was grieving so many things, including the end of a marriage.  One of the ways I expressed my grief was by tears and many mornings, I would have a good cry session before I left for work.  No one at work ever seemed to notice, as I’d walk in with my cheery smile and “how are yous?” 

One morning, Doug was my first client.  He walked in my office, sat down, looked at me, and immediately said, “You’ve been crying.”  Uh, Oh, what was I to do?  I didn’t want him to start obsessing on what was causing me to cry.  I was supposed to be professional and there were professional boundaries to uphold, after all.  Yet, lying to him would destroy trust and he would feel unsafe.  I told him the truth that I was crying and after a few minutes of him expressing sadness that I could be in distress, we were able to move on.

Have you had experiences like that?  Experiences of being seen deeply?  Of not being able to hide?

In today’s Gospel, Jesus sees the Samaritan woman.  In doing so, we have a model for how to treat ourselves and a model for the church and how we treat each other and our neighbors.

First of all, Jesus dares to speak to a woman and a Samaritan woman at that.  This conversation between a man and a woman was usually not done.  The Samaritans and Jews were at odds with each other over religious practices and had little love for each other.  Jesus once again breaks the rules and focuses on relationship.

Secondly, the woman came alone to the well at noon, the hottest part of the day.  While women usually drew water for their families, they often came earlier in the day, when it was cooler.  In addition, they usually came together in a group.  It appears that this woman was not respected by her community.  She was an outcast.  Jesus once again, breaks the societal barriers, caring about the relationship.  He sees the woman as created by God, which is the most important thing.

Thirdly, Jesus does not condemn the woman.  He knows why she is not the most respected person in the community – she had five husbands and now lives with a man who is not her husband.  Jesus gives the woman the opportunity to be honest and authentic about her life, when he says in verse 16, “Go, call your husband and come back.”  The woman could have left and not returned.  She knew Jesus was a traveler and she could have never had another encounter with him again.  She could have “pretended” she was an upstanding member of the community.

Isn’t that what so many of us do?  We walk around with grieving souls, heavy in our burdens, yet tell so many that we meet that we are just fine.  Even in our church community, being authentically who we are, is difficult.  We’re not sure if we will be judged.  We’re not sure if we will be shunned.  We erroneously believe who we authentically are is not worthy of relationship.

Now, some of this is smart or necessary.  We are human beings after all and we can be very cruel to each other.  Discerning with whom to share the most intimate details of our life is prudent.  However, don’t you agree that “putting on the face” is draining and tiring?  Being able to be authentic is so freeing.  That’s what our relationship with Jesus is all about.  That’s one of the reasons God sent His Son into the world. . . to free us.

Jesus accepts the woman without judgment.  He tells her she is worthy of the water that will quench all thirst.  He does not shun her nor refuse to be in relationship with her.  As a result, she is not locked in to the role she and her community have created for her.  She is free to be different…to change.

That’s the paradox of being truly seen. . . acceptance of what is true allows us to examine that part of ourselves and to make changes if we’d like.

Jesus’ example of naming what is true, while not shunning nor cutting off the relationship, is the best example for how we treat each other and how our church community needs to be seen.  And this behavior is evangelizing.  Look what happens.  The woman is amazed.  While not the most respected member of her community, she gathers many in the town to come see this Jesus who truly saw her and knew her.  And the people come and they ask Jesus to stay with them.  While at first he is a curiosity, eventually, many believe he is the Messiah because of their encounter with him.  And the story is preserved for us.

A quote from a book on forgiveness by Karyn Kedar is part of our Lenten meditation reading, Renew a Right Spirit Within Me booklet, today and speaks to the power of being seen…our call as a Christian community to be,

“…people who see you, really see you for who you are and who love you because of that.  They know you perhaps better than you know yourself.  When you are at your best they delight in you.  When you lose your way, they hold up for you the vision of your higher self.  When you look at them, you see in their eyes a mirror of who you are – and you like what you see. . . .  They sustain all that is good in you and allow the divine purpose in your life to flow easily through you and your relationship with them.  (Bridge to Forgiveness, Karyn Kedar, p. 83)

Strive for the authentic life and strive to be the evangelist who, like Jesus, deeply sees others.

Amen